U.S. Conducts Operation Against Black Market Peso Exchange

On June 24, 2005, Drug Enforcement Administration head Karen P. Tandy announced the successful results of Operation Mallorca, a 27-month investigation that targeted the alleged money laundering activities of four Colombian-based money brokers who sent drug proceeds through the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE). The operation has produced 36 arrests in two countries and the seizure of $7.2 million, 947 kilograms of cocaine, 7 kilograms of heroin, and 21,650 pounds of marijuana. According to Tandy, the DEA is targeting drug cartel financial networks to bankrupt traffickers and money launderers. Tandy explained that Operation Mallorca followed drug money around the globe to major Colombian drug traffickers. During the investigation, the traffickers used the BMPE, the largest known drug money laundering mechanism in the Western Hemisphere...[more]